Energizer Holdings, Inc.

Good morning. My name is Kate and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Energizer's first quarter fiscal year 2020 conference call. After the speaker's remarks, there'll be a question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jackie Berwitt, Vice President of Investor Relations. You may begin your conference now.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. During the call, we will discuss our results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2020. This call is being recorded and will be available for replay via the Investor Relations section of our website, energizerholdings.com. Also available on our website is a slide presentation providing additional details around our results and outlook for the coming year. With me this morning are Alan Hopkins, Chief Executive Officer, Mark Levine, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Tim Gorman, Chief Financial Officer. During the call, we may make statements about our expectations for future plans, including financial and operating performance. Any such statements are forward-looking statements, which reflect our current views with respect to future events. We also refer to non-GAAP financial measures, A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to comparable GAAP measures is shown in the press release issued earlier today, which is available on our website. Information concerning our category and market share discussed on this call relates to markets where we compete and is based on estimates using Energizer's internal data, data from industry analysis, and adjustments that we believe to be reasonable. Unless otherwise stated, the information provided pertains to the 13-week period ending in November. References to specific quarters and years pertain to our fiscal years and references to the legacy and our base business relate to the Energizer business prior to the completion of the battery and auto care acquisition. Investors should review the risk factors in our Form 10-K, 10-Q, and other SEC filings for a description of the key factors affecting our business. These risks may cause actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update these forward-looking statements. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Alan.

Thanks, Jackie, and good morning, everyone. Before I begin, I'd like to thank those who participated in our Investor Day in November. We appreciate the interest in Energizer, and our team valued the opportunity to meet with many of you so that we could share our path forward. We are grateful for the opportunity to showcase more of our leadership team and to provide even more insight as to why we are so excited about Energizer's future. As we outlined during Investor Day, Energizer is well positioned to achieve industry leadership as a diversified global household products company in batteries, lights, and auto care and generate significant shareholder value. By the end of 2022, our financial goals are to deliver more than $700 million of adjusted EBITDA and over $400 million in adjusted free cash flow to strategically invest in our business. To achieve this, We are focused on the same strategies that have served us well since separation. They are to lead with innovation, operate with excellence, and drive productivity across all of our businesses. These strategies enable us to deliver consistent organic growth ahead of our categories, invest in innovation and A&P, and capture over $100 million in synergies by the third anniversary of our acquisition. Executing these strategies will advance our goal of creating a strong, integrated company with a leadership position in batteries, lights, and auto care. 2020 is the first full year on our path to deliver the financial goals we communicated during Investor Day. Our first quarter results were in line with our expectations, and we are reaffirming our outlook for the full fiscal year. While Tim will provide more financial detail on the quarter and full year later during the call, I want to provide some high-level commentary. Our battery organic net sales were better than expected compared to the guidance of down mid-single digits provided during the fourth quarter call. I commend our colleagues for strong execution during the holiday selling season, including managing the earlier-than-normal phasing of holiday display activity from the first quarter into the prior year fourth quarter. Looking to the remainder of the year, we have high confidence in our outlook for 1% to 2% organic growth in 2020 as our team secured new distribution and expanded shelf space with existing customers. For our auto care business, first quarter net sales performance was in line with our expectations, which is historically the smallest sales quarter of the year. As we approach the peak selling season, we are well positioned to deliver our organic sales objectives with expanded distribution, new product innovation, increased A&P investment, and consistently high customer fill rates from our Dayton facility. As Mark will discuss in more detail in a moment, we achieved several important integration milestones with minimal disruption. The benefits of these activities will become evident in the remainder of the year. Our formula for success this fiscal year and over the next several years centers on the following, delivering consistent organic growth by being the preferred partner with our customers, investing in a pipeline of innovation in A&P to convert consumers to our brands regardless of where they shop, and realizing the benefit of significant synergies as we create a strong combined company. Ultimately, this combination will support the delivery of strong EBITDA and free cash flow growth, enabling Energizer to accelerate earnings, reduce debt, and continue to pay a meaningful dividend. We are excited about the opportunities ahead of us and remain focused on executing the plans underway to deliver on our commitments in 2020 and drive value for all of our shareholders. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Mark for an update on our categories and business trends, and integration efforts.